Narco Trafficker Used High School Students As Couriers, Drug Mules To Evade Authorities

A Mexican drug trafficker has been slapped with more than seven years in prison on Monday, Aug. 30, after he was convicted of orchestrating the distribution of numerous forms of drugs from Mexico to San Diego through the use of teen couriers.

Osvaldo Medivil-Tamayo, a 22-year-old Tijuana resident, was reportedly the leader of a drug distribution chain that smuggled in methamphetamines, cocaine, fentanyl pills, and heroin through the use of teenagers who go to San Diego’s schools as discrete drug mules, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office press release.

“Our youth are being used by drug traffickers to smuggle dangerous drugs across the border,” Acting U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman said. “We are aggressively prosecuting the recruiters who exploit children.”

Medivil-Tamayo was reportedly studying to be a lawyer in Mexico as he was trafficking drugs to the United States. He “specifically recruited high school students who crossed through the San Diego Ports of Entry daily,” the court filings said.

In one incident, he offered $20,000 to people who could find a teenager whose drugs got seized as he was walking through the border, according to the Baltimore Sun.

“Drug cartels will do anything to get drugs into the United States so they can make their blood money - including putting our children in harm’s way,” Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Agent John W. Callery said.

Over 150 kilograms of different drugs, including counterfeit oxycodone pills that were actually filled with fentanyl, have been seized by the government and traced back to Medivil-Tamayo.

“Mendivil polluted our community with this drug for over a year,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Meghan Hesch said. “Agents in this case have interdicted over 30,000 fentanyl pills that Mendivil coordinated to be distributed in the United States.”

The government has remained staunch that while it will continue to fight drug traffickers who lure teenagers in as couriers, minors should also use their better judgment to not be with these traffickers, ABC10 said.

“[T]he children also need to know that trying to sneak dangerous drugs under the noses of authorities is risky business,” Grossman said. “Don't throw away your future.”